Attack of the Bumble Bee!

We came back from Spring Break today, and I was worried. Will the students want to be back? Will they be okay being confined to a seat when it is 70 degrees and sunny out? Will they remember what we talked about before break? Who really CARES that energy can be transformed? I JUST WANT TO GO BACK TO SLEEP! Okay, maybe that last part was from me...


Second period, my class has just started, all of my kids are calmly completing their do now, I'm holding the big binder of extra worksheets helping a student find something from last week,

Wow, first day back from break is going well, they are all working so...

"MISS TEACHER!!!!!!!!!! THERE IS A BEE NEXT TO THE WINDOW!!!!!!!!!!"

Cue 12 people getting up from the left side of the room and running to see, while 12 people get up from the right side of the room to run away!

I put down the very large binder on the window sill, and begin fighting through the crowd, saying, in my calmest teacher voice, "Okay guys, let's sit down, let me get a look at it. Please return to your seats. Its probably just a bumble bee, they don't even have stingers."

I'm thinking, Wait! Is that true about the stingers?? I'm a SCIENCE teacher! I should know that! Ah well, no one is listening to me anyway, why won't they stop staring and yelling, it's just a little bumble...Holy shit! That is a huge freaking bee! Sitting right there on the window sill! Next to my students! Who are all looking at me to do something!


I'm pretty sure I screamed out "OH MY GOD! THAT IS A HUGE BEE!"

So I did what any 23 year old teacher would do when trying faced with a mutant killer bumble bee. I grabbed the aforementioned very large binder, and threw it at the bee. Smack! Direct hit!

I then screamed and ran away while yelling "EWWWWWW! I SQUISHED IT!!!!! I HATE BEES!"


One of my very sweet students goes, "Miss Teacher! You didn't have to kill it!"

Yes, yes I did. It was big and scary! Now, someone get its damn body out of here. Oh shit, I'M that somebody who needs to get its body out of here... 

So, I very slooooowly tip toed over to the binder, even more afraid, I lifted up the binder, fully expecting a living, pissed off bee to come flying at my face. It was squished squished squished, but still, I screamed and ran away again. I think I said, "I want my dad! He gets the bugs!" But I'm hoping that was only in my head...it was getting hard to tell at this point, I was freaked out!

And then the same very sweet student goes, "It's okay, I'll get his body for you." I don't even know how he did it, I again, was running away, while saying, in my calmest-nothing-to-see-here voice "Okay guys, the bee is all gone! Let's get back to the Do Now!"

I hit reply ALL!

Did you ever hit reply all to an email? Like how I meant to inform the union president I was resigning, and just informed THE ENTIRE DISTRICT! I mean, to put it in perspective, everyone I work with on an everyday basis knows I am moving to Chicago, but I'm still embarrassed! I kind of feel like this guy...

School Starts Tomorrow?!?!

School starts again tomorrow! Of course, I didn't think this through and slept until 2pm today, so I'll probably be ready for bed right around the time I need to be waking up! Funsies!

I can't believe how fast break went by! At least this will be an easy week to ease back into school, two days, then Friday I'm being pulled out to write the 7th grade final (read: I am not teaching Friday, which is really no big deal, as my 7th graders are taking a test, so I'd just be sitting there grading/lesson planning anyway!). AJ will be coming up Friday and then we have my cousin's engagement party on Saturday. It should be fun, to get all dressed up and drink free wine :)

I would really love one more day off to scrapbook and lay around...at least we had today though, the schools by me went back today!

Evil UPS

The UPS truck just drove down my street. You would have thought I was a 5 year old seeing the ice cream truck (or a 23 year old, if you were unfortunate enough to witness my ice cream truck dance when he drove by around 1...) by the way I yelled and almost bolted to the door. AND HE DIDN'T STOP! Doesn't the UPS man know I am waiting for my pots to come! I ordered them over a week ago!!! I realize I can't use them until I get to Chicago (we promised not to use any of the new stuff until we get there) but I can look at them, I can take them out of the box and pretend to cook with them. Wow, I'm really on that 5 year old mentality today aren't I? Where is the UPS guy when you need him????

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My pots came!! I took them all out of the box, and set them up on the table, just so I could see what they would look like when I used them. They are glass lids - I LOVE that! Now I can tell if the sauce if boiling or simmering without having to take off the lid and risk being splashed by very hot sauce. Although, it is a nice excuse to dip in some fresh mozzarella and "make sure" there is enough salt in the sauce hahahaha.

The UPS box was huge! And I think I may have frightened the UPS guy because I flung open the door and started jumping around when I saw the truck pull up!

 And then inside the box...was another box! And it was green, which matches all of my kitchen stuff...yes, I know I will throw out the box, but still, its looks so pretty next to the rest of the kitchen stuff in the corner waiting to be sent to Chicago!

 This is what they all look like on my kitchen counter...

Then I had to pack everything back into the wonderful green box. I wished I had taken pictures of each pot before I took it out, because it took about 20 minutes with everything spread out all over the kitchen floor to figure out how they all were supposed to go back in!

I'm so excited! Now all we need is an apartment to put them in...

Spring Break

Well, I've complete thrown off my sleep schedule over Spring Break! I've always been a night owl, I get that second wind right around 10pm and am ready to go clean the house, renovate the kitchen, reorganize my computer files, watch some trashy late night tv, whatever. Normally, I go to bed at a normal hour for someone who is supposed to wake up at 5:30am. Except when I'm on break and I can wake up whenever I want! So...it's almost 2am and I'm wide awake! And I have no pictures to scrap! Why won't shutterfly just deliver to my house at all hours of the day and night???

So, I know this blog is about scrapbooks and such...but I got two amazing deals on things for my kitchen in Chicago (okay, so I don't have a place to live yet, but I think its safe to assume this place will have a kitchen of some sort) and I am just so excited about them that I have to share!!! Also, because I think everyone around me is sick of hearing about it, but I am not sick of talking about it...

The first, is on new pots. I've never ever had my own set of pots before. It wasn't really a necessity, you know, since my mom always had a set, and we don't have THAT big of a kitchen. So, I went to Macy's found an awesome 12 piece set that had everything I could conceive of using. But, I did not have a ton of money to spend on pots, since I'd blown most of the logical cookware buying budget some of my dream items (wise spending decision...probably not, one that still makes me do a happy dance....definitely!), but then, I had the wonderful thought that Macy's is in the middle of a one day sale, and I have coupons! So, a one day sale + $20 off coupon + free shipping + $20 off for buying online = $59.99 for a 12 piece set!!! Commence the continuation of the cookware happy dance!

While I am thrilled over the ability to boil pasta and make sauce at the same time (not possible before I bought the aforementioned 12 piece set), my boyfriend has been dreaming about getting a George Foreman grill. Okay, maybe dreaming is a little extreme, but its super late, so I think he will forgive me for some poetic license here. So, we've looked and looked and looked at the grill, but we were waiting for a sale. Then, Kohl's did a magical thing...the Kohl's Cash and the Kohl's sale overlapped...and a few clicks here, a few clicks there, and George Foreman grill is at my door, for only $12!

Now, I do not expect anyone else to get as excited as I do over some pots and a grill, but I do love a sale, and I do love to cook - now if I only I could learn to love to eat! Next time I'm here, this will totally be back to scrapbooks and layouts and all that fun-ness!

Have a wonderful Easter, if you celebrate Easter, and if you don't, have a fabulous Sunday!

Katie

A Clean Scrapbook Room and a New Layout

I love to see how other people have their scrapbook rooms/corners/desks set up, I am a huge organizer, so I'm always looking for new ways to organize! I wanted to post pictures of my room, so I could remember what it looked like after I move and have to re-set it up! It had to wait until I was on Spring Break, so I could finally clean up my scrapbook room! Well, my half of it at least...

I love the bookcases from Ikea! I have three of them, two standing on either side, and one lying down in the middle. I left the dividers out of the second shelf on both the vertical bookcases to fit my eclips (in the picture) and my cricut (not in the picture). I really love this set up! I hope I can keep the shelves like this when we move...only we won't need it as a tv stand anymore, so that will become my desk (the desk I currently have is way too big to fit into any apartment!)

I was inspired by my newly cleaned room to scrap some pictures I found while I was cleaning. I love to make chocolate chip cookies (in fact, there are some in the oven right now!) My brother, dad and boyfriend all love these cookies...I actually don't like cookies, or sweets really, except flourless chocolate cake, but I'm alone in that one! So, I decided to make a page featuring the recipe (hahaha, its just the Toll House one), as well as some pictures of the steps of making the cookies.

I also used my cricut everyday paper dolls to make the "cook" in the corner. I didn't mean for it to be so tall, but I originally planned on using different hair that wasn't quite as tall. Its okay though, I love the hair because it reminds me of how I wear mine when I'm cooking! I also added stickles to the pocket and ribbon of the apron...I just got my first set of stickles (I could never find them by me, but I found them by AJ in Delaware...and the best part? No sales tax!)

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great day!
Katie

Countdown #1

I love calendars and countdowns, and lately, I have a lot to count down to! Moving to Chicago, my brother moving to Penn State for law school, my birthday, going to Chicago to look at apartments, the end of the school year.

Today I'm focusing on the end of the school year. I created a countdown of how many more days I will physically be in my physics classroom. So it has two purposes really, one is to countdown to the end of school (don't get me wrong, I love my job, but who doesn't love summer break!), and the other to remind just how many days of instruction I have left before the state exam! I really liked the way it turned out. This isn't the traditional way I set up my countdowns. Usually, I have a clothesline-like set up with all the little number cards hanging off, since my mom used the make countdowns for us like that when we were little. But I will have so many countdowns going at once, I didn't want to have 18 lines going across the house!

I found an article on scrapbooking.com about creating countdowns, and I loved the beach countdown page. It was super simple to put together, and I was able to use up a ton of scraps! Also, with the various countdowns I will have going on, I wanted to have ones that were compact and could easily be hung up along one wall.
You can find the directions I followed here: http://scrapbooking.com/cgi-bin/Phase_2/layout.pl?serial=72578

This is how mine turned out:

I got the background paper from Die Cuts With a View's Summer Stack, it says "last days of school, counting down the days, vacation, party, summer break". It isn't too visible with the papers and such on top, but I know it is there, and that makes me smile! I also cut out pieces of the title from the background paper. The green paper is from my stash, and the blue paper is actually Staples bright copy paper, I chose it because it is very light and I was hoping it wouldn't weigh the paper down too much. I am planning on backing the countdown on light weight cardboard (similar to the kind that comes on the back of legal pads) that so the weight of the countdown stack doesn't pull it off my wall.

And, I just loved that picture! I google imaged "last day of school" and this came up. I can't find the one I used, but here is a colored in version: http://hp.loudoncounty.org/

I'm hoping to get some actual layouts done soon, we are going to a Mets game this weekend, so I will definitely have some pictures to use!

Thanks for stopping by!